Tatsat Chronicle Magazine

Government Claims 55% Of Rural Households Across India Now Have Tap Water Supply

December 20, 2022
Tap water

The government has claimed that 55% out of the total of 19.36 crore rural households now have supply of tap water. According to the information shared by Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of Jal Shakti in the upper house, the number of tap water connections in rural households has gone up from 3.23 crore in 2019 to 7.48 crore as on December 13, 2022, representing a 38% increase access to tap water in rural India.

He also claimed that since August 2019, the Centre, in partnership with States, is implementing Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) to make provision of potable tap water supply to every rural household by 2024. So far, Goa, Telangana, Haryana, Gujarat and Union Territories of Andamans and Nicobar Islands, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Daman and Diu, and Puducherry have reported to provide tap water connection to all rural households.

According to the minister, a number of steps have been taken to plan and implement JJM in the whole country with speed, which includes joint discussion and finalisation of annual action plan (AAP) of states and Union Territories, regular review of implementation, capacity building and knowledge sharing through workshops, conferences, webinars, and field visits by a multi-disciplinary team to provide technical support, etc.

A detailed Operational Guideline for the implementation of JJM, Margdarshika for Gram Panchayats and VWSCs to provide safe drinking water in rural households and Guidelines on a special campaign to provide piped water supply in Anganwadi centres, Ashramshalas and schools have been shared with states and UTs, to facilitate planning and implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission.

For online monitoring, JJM–Integrated Management Information System (IMIS) and JJM–Dashboard has been put in place. Provision has also been made for transparent online financial management through Public Financial Management System (PFMS).